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Each Scottish season offers up new possibilities for enjoying the country's wildlife. The sheer spectacle of wintering wildfowl is second to none while, in spring and summer, our cliff-breeding seabirds and offshore whales and dolphins command attention. Autumn is the time for seal pups and stag ruts. Here in Scotland there is always a wealth of natural splendour to enjoy.
Spring might be regarded as primetime in the Scottish wildlife calendar. As much of the wildfowl around our shores departs for the summer, a new wave of bird, animal and plant life appears across the nation. In the Highlands and Borders, ospreys return from southern climes to reclaim their nest sites on pines and pylons. Male capercaillie proudly proclaim their status to females at leks throughout the Caledonian forests. Crested tits feed actively, clinging to trunks and hanging from branches, like most tits, searching for a wide range of invertebrates and pine seeds. Salmon make their way upstream to spawn, the greatest numbers choosing the major rivers such as the Tweed, Tay and Spey. Indeed the Tweed is still regarded by many as the finest salmon river there is.
Gannets, fulmars and shags are often the first to arrive at the seabird colonies around our coasts, among the most spectacular being Noss in Shetland, St Kilda and the Bass Rock. Later arrivals include puffins, guillemots and razorbills, found in significant numbers in locations such as Noup Head in Orkney, Handa, the Isle of May and St Abb's Head. The sights, sounds and smells of these sea-cliff cities are unrivalled across most of Europe. Altogether more sedate is the Hebridean machair, an area of low-lying fertile plain along the western seaboard, which is a unique refuge for rare carpet flowers and birds such as twite, dunlin, redshank and ringed plover. The machair of the Uists and Barra alone holds over 17,000 breeding pairs of wading birds, most prominently lapwing.
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Summer in Scotland is a time of bright colours, remarkable light and wildlife spectacles by the thousand. The nation's seabird colonies are still alive well into July with comical puffins zipping to and from their burrows with mouthfuls of sandeels, while skuas and great black backed gulls watch on with predatory interest. Offshore, Scotland's seas are moving with cetaceans of all shapes and sizes. The Moray Firth's bottlenose dolphins pursue fish shoals while their white-beaked and white-sided cousins surface around the Hebrides. The west coast is also prime whale-watching territory, with minke whales abundant around Mull and the Small Isles and orcas frequently spotted in the Minches. To the north, the waters around Shetland are worth scouring for the larger humpback whale.
The islands of the north and west are also a haven for the elusive corncrake, a bird once threatened with extinction but which has recently experienced a resurgence thanks to changes in farming practices and better conservation measures. Listen for its rasping cry in the still summer twilight, one of the most evocative sounds in Scottish nature. While corncrakes are largely absent from the Scottish mainland there are many other wildlife experiences to enjoy in the summer months. In Speyside and upland Perthshire, for example, this is the season for red squirrel litters and for osprey chicks. In the Highland glens, red deer are calving and, in late summer, stags will shed their velvet as the growth of new antlers is complete. Around the country, swallows and martins gather in groups to prepare for their long flight to Africa where they will spend the winter.
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Autumn is the season in which the glory of Scotland's countryside is realised most fully, with stunning colours highlighting the beauty of the glens and snow dusting the highest tops. It is also a key period for the country's wildlife; a real sense of change sweeps over our natural environment. In autumn, stags gather in the sheltered glens for the annual rut, a loud and often violent ritual defined by echoing roars and the clatter of antlers. Red deer males must compete to mate with their female counterparts (hinds) and the strongest may end up breeding successfully with up to twenty in one year. Among the finest locations to hear and view the rut in full flow are the Hebridean islands of Jura and Rum, the Perthshire Highlands and the Galloway hills.
The Solway coast of Dumfries & Galloway also comes alive in autumn, as the entire breeding population of barnacle geese from Spitsbergen (some 25,000) descends on its meadows, salt marshes and mud flats. At the same time, hundreds of Icelandic whooper swans and Siberian Bewick's swans appear, as do many pink-footed and greylag geese. All these birds may be viewed at the Caerlaverock and Mersehead reserves by Dumfries. A second population of barnacle geese, numbering over 30,000, arrives simultaneously on Islay, as does the Greenland population of white-fronted geese. The sheer spectacle of these birds settling to roost by Loch Indaal at night is among Scotland's natural highlights. Likewise, further up the west coast, the volume of grey seals hauled up with fur-coated pups at sites such as Oronsay and the Monach Isles provides an unforgettable wildlife display. Scotland accounts for 40% of the international grey seal population, and this fact is best demonstrated during autumn.
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The Scottish winter is a difficult concept to define. It ranges from the bitterness of the snow-swept, Arctic Cairngorm plateau to the damp, mild prevailing breeze of the south-western coastline. The high tops attract only the hardiest of species such as the ptarmigan, whose white plumage reflects its winter habitat. At lower levels, geese, swans and a great variety of ducks are still present in huge numbers on Islay and around Spey Bay, Montrose Basin and the Solway, to name but a few prime locations. Courting ducks, such as mergansers, goosanders, goldeneye and eider, provide a magnificent spectacle in January and February. In the Highlands, wildcats and red squirrels court more furtively in the glens and pine-forests. Do, however, listen out for the former's screeching mating call on still northern nights.
In the forests in February, crossbills are one step ahead, already sitting on eggs in anticipation of the early cone crops for feeding young. Badger cubs are also being born at this time. In the hills, young ravens are feeding on carrion provided by their parents and, in the Cairngorms particularly, reindeer are beginning to shed their antlers. Around them, mountain hares are losing their winter camouflage and growing new spring coats. Even on the highest hills, where snow patches may remain throughout the year, spring is never too long in coming.
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